Privacy On Public Clouds – Five Issues You Must Know About

Privacy On Public Clouds – Five Issues You Must Know About

Cloud computing is everywhere and presents a compelling value proposition for its end users. However issues like privacy and security still are grey areas when it comes to public clouds. Here presented are five issues one must be aware of:

1. You own the data and hence the responsibility

Many cloud users do not know the answer to this question – Who owns my personal information once I upload it on the Cloud Service Provider’s (CSP) server? Most public cloud service providers recognize that the user retains ownership of data once it is uploaded. (e.g. https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms) This also means that you have decided to trust the CSP with handling of your data. The CSP may have some responsibility for handling the information safely but not all. You may choose a different service provider or choose not to put particular data on cloud altogether. But the buck stops at you are responsible for the data you put up there.

2. CSPs collect much more data

Typically at the time of joining you provide certain details including personally identifiable information (PIIs) to CSP. But you will be surprised to know that they know a lot more about you. The additional information is derived from your regular usage of their services. This includes when you log in, for how long you are connected, devices you use, location from where you connect, applications you use etc. Various mechanisms are employed to collect these details. Common methods use browser web storage, application data caches, cookies, pixel tags and anonymous identifiers.

3. You have only limited control over data

It is common for CSPs to provide few privacy options to end users. But there is a catch. Firstly you do not get to control every data, only a subset of privileges is offered. Secondly these options help you customize how rest of the world sees your information. Your CSP still has full access to the data, and they use it for a variety of purposes (e.g. http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/policies/privacy/). You cannot stop them from doing that because it is covered in the contract.

However, you still have some absolute powers in the form of local browser security settings. You can set the desired security levels and in effect block cookies or other scripts from executing. But there is a cost associated with this. The moment you say block cookies, many features may stop working. CSPs clearly state that in their terms and conditions. So if you want to get full features from the cloud this is not a practical option.

4. Encryption is your true friend

What if you have already signed up with cloud service provider? You still have a friend in terms of encryption. You can encrypt all your sensitive data before storing it on the cloud. This adds an additional security layer, control of which lies entirely with you. It may not be to the CSPs liking but highly recommended as this will fetch you greater control over safety of your data.

5. Law of the land may not apply

Unfortunately, privacy laws all over the world are still evolving and there is no global standard. While you may be governed by the state laws you live in, the same may not apply to your data. Your CSP and eventually the server where your data resides, may come under a different jurisdiction. So think again if you are counting on local laws to come to your rescue in case of a breach.

Established in 2009, CloudTweaks.com is recognized as one of the leading authorities in cloud computing information. Most of the excellent CloudTweaks articles are provided by our own paid writers, with a small percentage provided by guest authors from around the globe, including CEOs, CIOs, Technology bloggers and Cloud enthusiasts. Our goal is to continue to build a growing community offering the best in-depth articles, interviews, event listings, whitepapers, infographics and much more...

Recent

Surprising Facts and Stats – Online Security It’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when browsing the web. As more and more devices join the internet of things, the risk of becoming a victim of a criminal cyber gang is increasing – we have more unsecured access points and offer would-be…

World Backup Day: Understand The Data You Are Protecting Did you know that 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute? What about the fact that 1 in 10 computers are infected with a virus every month? Thanks to World Backup Day, an independent initiative that was started in 2011, awareness is being raised about…

The E-Learning Market We’ve talked a fair bit about e-Learning and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) technologies here on CloudTweaks over the past number of years. The industry is expected to continue to grow at a brisk pace as more and more firms and educational institutions start to adopt cloud based services. Docebo has an excellent…

Popular

The Cloud In 2015 For organizations of all sizes, in 2014 the cloud emerged as a critical part of the default consideration set when implementing any new application – in large part due to the cloud’s proven ability to handle data storage and processing demands in an elastic manner, improved verifiable standards around data security and…

What Cloud Technology Has Allowed Us to Do Better The cloud has made our working lives easier, with everything from virtually unlimited email storage to access-from-anywhere enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. It’s no wonder the 2013 cloud computing research IDG survey revealed at least 84 percent of the companies surveyed run at least one cloud-based application.…

The Future Of Big Data Big Data is BIG business and will continue to be one of the more predominant areas of focus in the coming years from small startups to large scale corporations. We’ve already covered on CloudTweaks how Big Data can be utilized in a number of interesting ways from preventing world hunger to helping teams win…

Unusual Clandestine Cloud Data Centre Service Locations Everyone knows what the cloud is, but does everybody know where the cloud is? We try to answer that as we look at some of the most unusual data centre locations in the world. Under the Eyes of a Deity Deep beneath the famous Uspenski Cathedral in the…

12 Promising Business Intelligence (BI) Services Business Intelligence (BI) services have recently seen an explosion of innovation and choices for business owners and entrepreneurs. So many choices, in fact, that many companies aren’t sure which business intelligence company to use. To help offer you a solution, we’ve compiled a list of 12 Business Intelligence companies…

Sponsored Posts

Mobility For Your Employees It may seem a radical notion, the idea of selling your business to the people who work for you, but this is the era in which we now work. Employees of all levels are all incredibly aware of their options when it comes to mobility and employability. This doesn’t mean that…

Cloud Logo Sponsors

Contributor Spotlight

Established in 2009, CloudTweaks is recognized as one of the leading influencers in cloud computing, big data and internet of things (IoT) information. Our goal is to continue to build our growing information portal, by providing the best in-depth articles, interviews, event listings, whitepapers, infographics and much more.